Chlorine likely used in February attack in Idlib, Syria

An alleged gas attack in Douma on April 7 was used as a pretext by the US, Britain and France to launch a coordinated missile attack against sites and research facilities near Damascus and Homs with the purported goal of paralyzing the Syrian government's capability to produce chemicals.

Banned chlorine munitions were likely dropped on a Syrian neighbourhood in February, an worldwide body on chemical weapons said on Wednesday, after laboratory tests confirmed the presence of the toxic chemical.

Chlorine gas was likely used during an attack in Syria this past February, the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons confirmed.

The OPCW said its Fact-Finding Mission (FFM) has "confirmed that chlorine was likely used as a chemical weapon on February 4, 2018 in Saraqib, Idlib Governorate, Syrian Arab Republic".

State Department Spokesperson Heather Nauert reported about the attack with the use of chlorine gas near the city of Saraqib on February 6.

"This was the role created by the UN security Council, the Joint UN and OPCW to investigate chemical attacks in Syria, whose mandate expired in December 2017", - reminded in the organization.

Investigators had "determined that chlorine was released from cylinders" in the Ali Talil neighborhood of Saraqeb in the northern province of Idlib. Western observers said the use of helicopters in the attack suggested Syrian government involvement since the opposition did not have access to helicopters. The scale of the attack prompted the UK, France and the United States to mount cruise missile strikes on what it said were Syrian government chemical weapons sites.

The team exhumed bodies as well as gathering over 100 environmental samples which are being analysed in different OPCW-designated labs.

The use of chemical weapons has become systematic in Syria's seven-year war, but political rifts between Western powers and Russian Federation have hamstrung the United Nations and the OPCW, leaving them unable to act against violations of worldwide law.

However, in line with its mandate the watchdog did not say which side in Syria's complex seven-year civil war was responsible for using chlorine.

The West blames for the chemical attack in Idlib on the Syrian troops.

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